I didn’t think I would be able to top Buster from last Monday but Maurice is a mean contender, just look at those ears and eyebrows. To die. Maurice was captured by photographer Kate Paneros, a former Souvenir Foto student.  Kate is so talented, her travel photo’s are beyond impressive and even caught the eye of a huge magazine that asked her to shoot for them.  She’s like the Cinderella of Flickr without the evil step sisters. I can’t believe she didn’t immediately send me an email with Maurice’s mug in it, but alas I stalk her so Maurice was bound to make an appearance eventually.  Happy Monday to you all!

Last weekend I was successful at snagging the last bundle of Zinnias at the Farmer’s market.  I usually don’t get so colorful in my floral choices, but the Technicolor petals were calling my name.  I also got some Dahlias but I’ll save those images for another post.  The flowers were surprisingly inexpensive, especially since I bought a muffin and scone for $8! Yes, eight U.S. dollars! I was distracted by the stand I was procuring the bake goods from charming branding and wasn’t paying attention until the moment it came to turn over my hard earned cash, but that’s another story, let’s get back to the Zinnias shall we?  I knew I had a roll of color Impossible Project film at home ( a gift I had been saving for a special occasion) and I figured the bright colors could be subdued by the dreamy film.  I think in theory this would have been great if any of my shots would have turned out.  I haven’t had any luck with Impossible Project film, which makes me wonder if it’s not the film but my camera (you see how I conveniently assume it just can’t be me?) I just haven’t had success with my SX70.  It was my beloved and now dead 680 Polaroid that I bonded with.  It was a flea market steal and now you can’t find one for less than $200, which is so not in my budget (come on, I started this post off complaining about spending $8!) I did do some test shots with my digital camera (see above) prior to check light, exposure and composition.  I am glad I did as these photos made me much happier than my instant film versions, which made me want to hurl my camera at the wall (that film is spendy). I want to let you know I didn’t do much to these shots but fix the white balance (which was more of a blue balance), I still can’t believe how vivid these flowers were and how sharp I shot (that never happens).  Here’s to happy accidents, have a wonderful weekend!

 

Another sneak peek at the new Besotted Brand offerings, these are our Archive labels.  The labels–oh the labels.  Yes, this little label project has been both one of my greatest joys and the bane of my paper obsessed existence.  After many calculations I figured I would be making negative $5 on every order,  of the labels but you know what?  I don’t care!  Let’s put me in the hole, these are too amazing not to share with the world, am I right?  I have always had the ability to do these as sheets and even created templates in both Illustrator and Word but I never wanted to sell sheets, because I didn’t want frustrated emails of faulty home printer jobs (I’m a professional and I still have problems with printing), but I just may do it anyway with a disclaimer, buy sheets AT OWN RISK printing at home has been known to drive one to drink.  It’s okay, for those that don’t have a desire to turn to booze there will be  labels to be had that you can stamp, write on, do transfers on what have you.

The first batches will be in Jet, a beautiful deep black on the Besotted Brand signature stock in creme. It’s a really nice soft white colour, not too yellow, not too white with a light texture.  They feel rich.  You will be labeling everything you can think of.  I used one of our fine crimson stamps in the photo above (I need to make myself look larger, you know it’s just me and my dogs now, right?) that reads ‘cheers’.  I love a good ‘cheers’ feels so very English and since I am obviously besotted with the English (AND the French, Italians, Spanish Scandinavians et al…) you shall see their influences throughout my designs. If you aren’t signed up for the launch you won’t be privy to any of the specials and yes, there will be specials coming.  I have a number in my head that when we reach that on the list I will open shop and I will start doling out specialness, so tell a friend or two or three…

I have been obsessed with this photograph in Lulu de Kwiatkowski’s home ever since I first spied it in a former issue of Lonny Magazine.  It could have easily been a photograph by a famed artist but the back story behind it is so much better.  Miss Lulu gave this beautiful piece to her husband for his birthday.  It was a photograph taken with an inexpensive underwater disposable camera and then mounted behind acrylic. Will the creativity of some people never seem to cease?  I did some research and most acrylic photo mounting is cost prohibitive or has unsightly knobs in each corner, both things I found rather unappealing.  This company does the mounting for less than highway robbery and they have some other creative mounting ideas if your not one for the look of acrylic.  I have seen this same technique used with a print of an abstract acrylic painting resulting in a gorgeous contemporary art piece. I have a couple photographs in mind that I think would be fabulous behind acrylic (that sounded a little pompous, no?) Maybe your searches have been more fruitful than my own, I would love to know if you have tried this or found a resource to add to this post.

My baby girl is by far the naughtiest Frenchie on earth.  Miss Bella knows that she is not allowed on the bed without her blankie or vigorously cleaning her paws prior to entry.  I have an all white bed after all, one set of high thread count sheets (working up to multiple sets) and there are rules gosh darn it!  These rules went out the window when I caught her in bed in the late afternoon, Bella loves any excuse to jump in bed, the best excuse being that I left the bedroom door slightly ajar. When I walked into the bedroom to put something away I found her in the exhibit ‘a’ photo above (see photo no. 01) trying to look as nonchalant as possible, “Oh, hello Mum, uhm, you look real pretty in that dress…”. When she realized I wasn’t going for her puppy dog eyes she acted as if she was getting up to leave.  I am impervious to a few things–Bella’s big brown, marble eyes, the light in my bedroom in the late afternoon and the impulse to document both.  I know I shouldn’t reward her bad behavior but she is so cute and the light, oh the light…After she realized she wasn’t going to be flogged (as if), she rolled over on her back and enjoyed the shoot as only my naughty Frenchie could.